Waltz of the Universes
by Judgment Waltz
Summary: Group Date Cafe, The Big Day... somehow, he found himself holding the hand that belonged to another Wild Card.


He wasn't really sure what to make of this question that was presented to him. It's not that it was weird, because honestly, he had faced weirder questions just a few moments ago, but it was still considered weird to him for some odd reason. Namely because it seemed out of place for the mechanical voice to ask, or because of the answers he was allowing. Or whatever it was that he possibly couldn't know. Either way, this question proved to be troubling him in some way.

Ah, but to give a brief explanation. In this second labyrinth that was aptly named Group Date Cafe, filled with colorful hearts, glittering rings, pairs of stuffed dolls hanging around together, damageable floors, moving panels, and of course, F.O.E.s, a voice boomed from the speakers that greeted them, or rather, him, to this labyrinth. Basically, for the entirety of the labyrinth, the mechanical voice would ask him questions regarding his 'destined partner', and he was given a few answers to say. So far, he hadn't seen much that could stick out to him, aside from the few questions regarding his opinions on one's sex, as well as his preferences on where he would usually hang out in. That one was considered 'outside', for he was hanging out with his friends for once, at the least.

And now to this current predicament in the third floor. After five questions, including the two mentioned, the sixth question was stirring up his curiosity on his answers and their outcomes. It was almost like he was being threatened, not in the literal sense, or even in humiliation akin to blackmailing, but more like... one of the answers was going to pull a fast one on him without him noticing.

'Weird' was all over the labyrinths they traversed thus far. This question seemed to top it off for now, and he didn't know why.

"_What do you see in your girl?"_

(1. "Her quiet, comforting side.")

(2. "The way she's friendly to everyone.")

(3. "Her selfishness.")

(4. "Her traits don't matter.")

...

Okay, he would so willingly pick the fourth option if he really didn't care, but at the same time, he felt like that option was some kind of trap. Or... no, one of them was? He pondered to himself about the meaning to his answers.

The first answer seemed to belong to a girl who was somewhat bashful, but still kind all around. Fuuka Yamagishi seemed to fit this answer well. Yukiko Amagi was definitely comforting at most, but he wasn't sure if she was that bashful. He doubted he ever considered Marie to be quiet, if she was going to throw her embarrassed outbursts in a quick sentence that was somewhat incomprehensible. Margaret might also be part of this answer, but he didn't know if he saw her comforting side even once.

The second answer was... too confusing. He wasn't sure if 'everyone' literally meant 'everyone she knew'. It seemed to fit Yukari Takeba well, with what actually put her back being her small dislike for Mitsuru Kirijo in a few ways, maybe. Rise Kujikawa was completely friendly to everyone, so maybe she was a good fit? Yukiko's also pretty friendly to everyone, at best, so it may have applied to her as well. Chie Satonaka was against Yosuke Hanamura at times, and Naoto Shirogane and Elizabeth were only a little friendly to everyone at best, he thought.

The third answer was easy to understand, but somewhat difficult to equate. Maybe this was a trap? He had the idea that the mechanical voice set this one up to make everyone think differently of him. It was possible, but what about the possible results? Yukari could be somewhat selfish at times when he spent his time with her, Chie as well with her steak. Somewhat with Rise and her beloved senpai. He hadn't seen Yukiko, Naoto, Marie, or Margaret be selfish, and he doubted Fuuka or maybe Mitsuru could be as such. Elizabeth... maybe, if some of her requests were to be believed, but she did show some restraint at times.

The fourth option...

Was it him, or did it really seem like a well-planned trap if the voice happened to know him well?

So it was obvious that the fourth answer was out of the question, and that left him with the other three answers. The first sounded like he had a thing for shy people, while the third was a bit risky if he had to give in to someone's selfishness for the entire life. So...

"The way she's friendly to everyone."

This one seemed safe, he believed.

"Well," Yosuke spoke up from behind, feeling somewhat impressed, "I guess you can't beat that kind of girl."

"It does seem pretty logical," Yu Narukami responded as well. "It's easy to connect to someone who understands people."

" 'Someone who understands people'..." Akihiko Sanada folded his arms. "Might be just me, but aren't you already that kind of person, Leader?"

He only scratched his head in response.

After a few seconds passed, the seals that were on the door they needed to go through vanished. Now they can move forward through the labyrinth until they ran into another similar question room again.

...

Suddenly, he felt like his kind of answer was way too conflicting. And he didn't know why.

* * *

The seventh question room. Much like before, the interior of the room was the same, and the next door was shut tightly. The only way to open it was to give it an answer. There was no right or wrong answer, as the mechanical voice mentioned, and he supposed that was a good thing.

"_Your girl excels in a role. What could it be?"_

(1. "A magical girl!")

(2. "A top huntress!")

(3. "A skilled gamer!")

(4. "A leader!")

"A leader."

He sighed. Okay, these answers were starting to get ridiculous. And they were already ridiculous.

"A leader..."

Yu thought to himself before a disurbing thought was brought to him.

"Don't tell me... is it me?"

"How'd you reach that conclusion?" Yosuke almost tripped over that one. "He even said that he prefers girls, you know!"

"Still," Yukari mumbled, worried, "what's with these answers that he got this time? They really don't seem like they apply to anyone here..."

For a moment, he wondered if there were other universes that were laughing at him at this very moment.

* * *

The drums were rolling. The spotlights were sliding. And the tension in the atmosphere didn't help much to calm everyone down.

Ten questions were answered, and here they were. He idly wondered what was with the second half of those questions earlier. He did try to answer truthfully, but honestly, he was more tempted to answer something way off the limits and throw this voice out of its game. Whatever it was, this strange feeling that was welling up within him since the sixth question was about to have an explanation.

"_Your destined partner is... lo and behold..."_

He found himself under one spotlight.

And there was a girl on the other spotlight.

"...Eh?"

...!?

He wasn't able to recall seeing this girl anywhere... common brown hair with the accessories shaped like XXII. Red eyes that suddenly widened in huge surprise. A uniform that correlates to the Gekkoukan girl set, and... a red armband that belonged to SEES!?

"W-wait!" She suddenly shouted, almost panicking. "Just who are you!? And why do you-!?"

Then the trapdoors opened wide.

"Ah...!?"

_Thud._

* * *

Group Date Cafe, The Big Day...

The surrounding area looked peaceful and scenic to a T, promising their beauty to those that walked onward. Arcs of hearts were planted above the roads beyond them. And above, it seemed like there was an actual sky that was living beautifully, having a rainbow to boost its scenery. There was some kind of an ensemble resounding from the skies itself. It sounded like... fate, but in a happy sense.

Still, it was hard to find this happy at all for a good reason.

"Ow..." The brunette he saw earlier was right beside him, picking herself up. "I don't think the ground complimented me..."

Ah, she fell down from the room as well and... wait, that's right!

"Wait, that's right!" She suddenly echoed his thoughts, then turned to him with a fierce look in her eyes. "Who are you? And why do you have the SEES armband?"

He only tilted his head. Perhaps answering to her was for the best.

"Minato Arisato. And I'm a member of SEES."

"Huh...?" Question marks rose from her. "Wait, really? I never saw you in SEES at all. You're lying, aren't you?"

"Do you want me to?" He sighed, almost annoyed.

"Um... no?" Her red eyes blinked a bit meekly. "Well, I can't tell if you're lying. Or maybe you're lying that you're lying... hm..."

He gave her a flat stare, no doubt wanting to know something from her as well.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Hamuko Yuuki. I'm part of SEES as well, and..." She lifted a finger to her cheek. "Wait, so... what's going on? How come I've never met you in SEES before?"

"That can also be my question," he responded quietly. "I've never met you before either."

"I figured as much," this new girl, Hamuko, hummed appropriately. "That's very strange, then. If we're from SEES, but we've never met before, then..."

As she trailed off, a disturbing thought sprung in her mind the moment she saw her... occupied hand.

"Huh...? Wh-whoa! Why are you holding my hand? Why is it so warm? And why can't I let go!?"

She tried to yank her arm away multiple times, but all it accomplished was yanking him along and almost make him tumble a few times. After the consecutive pulling that only ended in failures, she cast her gaze downward and began to think to herself, about what was happening before she arrived here.

"Wait... I was in the labyrinth with everyone else, then I answered the last question... then that voice said I'd get my destined partner..."

Her red eyes slowly widened.

"Oh."

Then she turned to him, red eyes meeting blue.

"Oh."

Her pupils were shrinking. This was awkward to her, he knew...

"Looks like we're destined partners, then," he surmised. Well, he wasn't really sure how did his destined partner happen to be this mysterious girl, but...

"Um... okay?" She blinked. For all her flustering, she was good at concealing her blood from showing in her head. "Maybe... that's good? I think? But this is the first time we're seeing each other... and there's a lot of things we're missing..."

"_It seems you have arrived at your destination."_

"Ah," Hamuko softly gasped as she looked up. "It's the voice again."

"_This seems to be a path where lovers who met their destined partners discuss their love for each other."_

He wondered if there was any love between them that could be discussed.

"_What could be waiting up ahead?"_

"A Guardian, maybe?" Hamuko joked, looking a little bored.

"Probably Death," he thought loudly, joining her little jump.

"That's even worse."

"_You are free to step forth hand-in-hand, curiosity and fear in your hearts, or you can refrain."_

"Well, we got the hand-in-hand part written down," Hamuko lifted their hands together.

"_You are free to step forth, or refrain from doing so. These are your apparent options. Now, step forth!"_

The mechanical voice has gone silent...

"It doesn't really sound like we're given options, actually," the brunette groaned, lifting her free hand to her forehead.

He huffed a little to this situation. "We should probably move on."

"Wow," she whistled in admiration, "not a single care about this, huh?"

"It's not like we can learn anything by standing here, anyways," he logically pointed out. Well, there wasn't anything interesting to see in their position...

"Oh really?" She smirked. "How about we start over from the beginning before we move on, then?"

"Hm?"

She turned to face him completely, still holding his stuck hand, cheering up a little with a bright smile.

"I'm Hamuko Yuuki, second-year at Gekkoukan High, and the leader of SEES! Oh, and you look handsome with that bored face!" She giggled afterwards. Ah, so she was restarting the introductions. Might as well play along since their meeting started off a bit sourly.

"Minato Arisato, second-year at Gekkoukan High, and I'm also the leader of SEES" He paused for a moment. "And you look insane with that smile."

"Oh come on," Hamuko pouted cutely, almost folding her arms were his own arm not in the way, "don't you know how to compliment a girl properly?"

"I would have said 'you're crazy' instead, but you'd take it a bit far in some way."

"And I would have said 'Honey, I'm always crazy', but then I'd realize that you're too bored to get a reaction."

He smiled a little.

"Oh, whoa, I take it back," she recoiled before coughing to herself. "Okay, so... with that out of the way, let's get going, Mina-chan!"

He shrugged as his normal expression returned, to Hamuko's disappointment, and they began their small venture. He was... really unsure on how to make of this, and from the looks of it, Hamuko Yuuki was confused as well.

"So..." She spoke up, still looking on the road, "you're really from SEES, right? The leader, too? That armband isn't just for show?"

"I already said I am." Why did he have to explain himself again?

"And we never saw each other, so... hm..."

She idly thought to herself for a moment, trying to understand their stories together.

"So... what? We're both leaders... so maybe you have the Wild Card as well?"

"Yes," he answered coolly. "I awakened to Orpheus when I had to protect Yukari back at the rooftop."

Her red irises shrunk again. 'Orpheus', 'protect Yukari', 'rooftop'?

"No way, then did you somehow have Orpheus turn into a different kind of Persona at one point?"

He snapped a glare at her. "How do you know that?" He was sure the only people who knew of that particular night was Mitsuru, Akihiko, Yukari, and the chairman Ikutsuki. So how did this girl...?

The girl didn't seem to answer his question directly, instead she asked another question. "Wait, what about your past? Did your parents die in a fatal accident ten years ago?"

"..."

"...That's a 'yes', huh?"

He was certain the girl should never have been able to know these things. Not unless she was a witness to all these events. But she had never recognized him at all in her lifetime. Could this girl be...?"

"So these events," he began to ask once more, "they happened to you as well?"

She shrunk a little, a bit nervous to tell the truth. "...Well, yeah," she swallowed, "I lost my parents ten years ago, back on the bridge in Iwatodai. But..."

"We never saw each other," he added. "We enrolled to Gekkoukan, became involved with the Dark Hour, and awakened Orpheus, so..."

"Then that means..."

She gasped, though he noticed how it was a bit overdramatic, if only faint.

"Are you my long-lost brother!?"

"No."

Then she looked genuinely shocked at his immediate response.

"...Hahaha, geez, I should have expected that kind of reaction. That is to say, none."

He frowned. He really couldn't tell if he was supposed to play along... or what.

"Still," she seemed serious, "if you're not my brother, or anything like that, then... what does that mean? Are we... the same?"

Now that is one vague way of interpreting things, yet a sound one.

"We are most likely from our own, alternate universes."

She looked back at him, showing pure disbelief at the concept. It was until she began to ponder once more at the idea.

"Alternate universes... possible. We've been sharing the same background so far... and our first Persona is... the same..."

It was then that he chose to pick this moment to overthrow her line of thinking.

"Hello, me."

"Gah!"

She tumbled backwards out of pure surprise, and falling down like that came with the unfortunate result as her hand was still stuck to the blue-haired boy's own hand. He almost didn't expect to pull back like that, but it was too late to keep his balance as he fell down as well. Once they made their sketchy land, he groaned from the few bruises he gained and tried to get himself back up.

Blue eyes met red again.

...

"You have beautiful eyes."

They blinked. They were not expecting their other selves to say the same thing at once.

"...Jinx," she chirped mischievously.

"I don't care."

They spent their time conversing themselves while going slowly. To their surprise, their pasts were way too similar, almost identical to the eye that if one had only paid attention to little details, they would easily consider their pasts the same. Their past didn't happen to be the only thing that was the same. Their makeup of their team, of SEES, were completely identical as well. Earlier, they knew they were both leaders, but their comrades that they knew of were also in the other leader's team. Yukari, Junpei, Akihiko, Mitsuru, Fuuka, Aigis, Koromaru, Shinjiro and Ken. They all shared the same people.

And the way they were introduced to the alternate reality of Yasogami High...

Were they really the same person? No, that wasn't possible in a few ways, but they shared so many similarities that they were starting to wonder if it was true. So maybe... the same existence? Their roles were very much identical, as well as the timing of certain events...

"_Suddenly, all in attendance hear an announcement."_

" 'Attendance'?" Hamuko hummed. "Our friends, maybe?"

Well that might make sense. Sort of. He wondered if their friends were able to hear what was going on at all.

"_Up ahead, they see a bride and groom's joyous commemorative photograph of love."_

And now he wondered if they were able to see at all.

"Wait," Hamuko spoke up skeptically, "what 'photograph of love'?"

"_They confer between them whether to look at it, or ignore it."_

"Uh..." She suddenly grimaced at this foreboding moment, and it only looked worse when she saw a canvas on the end of the intersection. That's a new look for her, he thought. Turning to him, she asked a bit quietly, "You... wanna check it out? I... got a bad feeling, though."

As usual, he only sighed. "Whatever. Let's just go."

They stepped forward, ready to deal with whatever was in the way.

And... well, he certainly expected something less... literal from the voice.

"Uh... huh?" She muttered, unsure of what to make of it.

The photograph of the bride and groom the mechanical voice mentioned was there, and it definitely showed the groom elegantly carrying his bride, both well-posed for their marriage. Such a photo would be respected and found cute were it not for some very strange problem.

"That's definitely us... is it?"

The heads of the bride and groom definitely belonged to Hamuko's and his heads, respectively.

"Heh... ahahaha!"

Hamuko gave a short moment of laughter as she tried to understand the picture, her shaking arms also bringing his own arm with her. He wondered if she was even taking it seriously.

"Oh man," she tried to calm her chest down, "the look on your face is just perfect! It's like you're not enjoying it at all!"

He frowned, and then he noticed his frown matched with the one in the photo. Unlike that match, Hamuko's face in the picture looked somewhat surprised.

"And you look silly," he replied after a second of silence.

"Hah... I guess that's true," she was still beaming. "Maybe I'm just not that suited for a surprise marriage yet..."

He noticed she hit something in her words.

"Wait, this is a wedding, right?"

"I'm pretty sure that picture's suggesting it," he answered silently. What else could it suggest, at any rate?

"It sure doesn't look real," she hummed as she leaned on closer, dragging him along as well. Red eyes were glazing all over the picture. "Yeah, most of our body proportions are rather different than the one in this picture. I don't think we ever found ourselves changing into the costumes, either."

"Maybe we were manipulated," he hatched a thought.

"Still doesn't explain our proportions," she reminded. "Plus... I look... smaller, in this fake picture. It's definitely a good kick in artwork, though."

"You are unusually smart."

"And the same can't be said about you, Mina-chan? We are kind of the same person in a sense."

He smiled again. "So I guess we're in agreement that we came from parallel universes, then?"

Hamuko shrugged, a little comically at that. "Why not? To be in the same situations when we have no recollection of the other person around, that has to mean something."

They couldn't really refute nor take their words back with that. If so many events happened to be the same, then what was the point of trying to argue? But as Minato was thinking about this, Hamuko had a rather different thought in mind.

"Wait, but... if we really are bride and groom..."

She landed a fist to her palm... or rather, to the back of his palm. It was enough to gain his attention.

"I got it!" She cheerfully exclaimed. "Looks like I'm gonna be 'Hamuko Arisato' by the time we're done here!"

He only gave a flat stare at her.

"...And no kind of reaction from Mr. No-Fun here," she sighed.

"I don't care."

Then Hamuko giggled, easily expecting that. "Well, I can't really fault you for this. Or... am I supposed to fault myself?"

He was obviously looking bored as the seconds passed. "Shouldn't we get going?"

"Ugh, you're even right to the point..."

They went on ahead, ignoring the picture that depicted their 'totally-impossible-as-said-by-Hamuko' future, and were quite a couple ways before they reached the door up ahead. For some odd reason, as he looked at her, she seemed sullen.

"Hey," she muttered, almost about to shuffle her feet a little, "this kind of... pairing with us..."

He tilted his head in confusion. "Yeah?"

"Well... are we really meant to be...?"

...

"It's nothing too embarrassing. Maybe a little," she smiled thinly. "It's just that," she looked back down in nervousness, "if we are... well, kind of the same person, or the same 'existence' if you put it, then are we meant to be together?"

"What makes you think that?"

She wasn't sure if that kind of question showed his interests, so she continued on.

"It almost feels like... we're like twins in a sense. Of course, not like brother and sister, but the relationship is a bit close. That... and it feels like I know you all too well in just these past few minutes."

"Probably because we have similar pasts."

"Yeah, there's that."

...

All of a sudden, she stomped her foot.

"Gah! I don't care, either!" Then she looked dead straight into his blue eyes, and now he noticed her red irises had a burning pattern in them. "Mina-chan! Hold me reeeaaalll good!"

"..."

He wasn't really sure what she had in mind, and he didn't know if it was really okay to go along with it, but her burning eyes seemed to be highly suggesting it. In a swift move from Minato, she found herself just above ground, right on his arms. And, well, her arm, if getting stuck to him counted.

"Whoa!"

She registered shock the first moment, and felt a lot of shining blue butterflies fluttering in her stomach, all the while noticing her cheeks flushed with red. After collecting herself, she looked right back at his face, wondering what was he thinking as well and wanted an answer.

Beautiful red eyes met beautiful blue eyes.

Romantic.

...

"Mina-chan... this feels nice..."

He tilted his head.

"What? The breeze?"

"Heh, very funny."

Even as she finally set back down, she couldn't shake off her embarrassed feelings right away.

"Hm... well I can't say that something like this gave me an answer."

She was still looking away from his face, but he felt a form of resolution within her. It was becoming more and more apparent as she began to smile.

"But I will say that I won't ever forget this moment. We may be the same existence, yet different people from our own alternate universes, and we might have never heard of one another. But it doesn't stop us from being friends with each other. We are all connected... even if it's as literal as this."

She raised both of their stuck hands.

"And, well, if I do forget... I'll just remember it one day, right?"

"But basically you did find your answer," he pointed out.

"Close enough," came her response with an added giggle, "I consider it to be 'temporary'." She then turned towards the road, to the large church up ahead. "Come on! We have a wedding to finish!"

"Sure."

The entrance to it sure looked pristine, and designed well to the point that it may have been prepared for an actual wedding. The shapes of hearts above child-like angels were imprinted to the doors, probably to give the impression of 'innocent love'...

"_The long awaited moment has come. The bride and groom are finally about to enter."_

"You know, though," Hamuko suddenly spoke up, "this kind of marriage seems pretty awkward since we only just met five minutes ago."

"_The last moment of hesitation has arrived before you are to be wed."_

"Whatever," Minato sighed as usual.

"Yeah, whatever," followed by Hamuko misinterpreting it. "Let's just get married already."

"_Through your own free will, you decide to vow eternal love to each other."_

"...Through our own free will?" He frowned at that. Are people forced to vow love 'through their own free will'?

"Oh yeah, we didn't happen to vow eternal love, huh?" She went to a different tangent again.

"What do you mean?"

"What else? I love you, Mina-chan! There, now it was done on my own free will!"

...

"...Whatever."

"_Now, open the door together!"_

Both doors were swung open by both of their hands, and inside the cathedral was a scene perfect for the occasion. A royal blue carpet stretching all the way to the altar with scattered pink petals by its side, rows of classic wooden pews in both sides decorated with a trail of white bows, and a large, golden bell hanging just above the altar.

Oh, and a funky clergyman playing the organ.

Hamuko smiled.

"Cheers!"

* * *

The Velvet Room...

"So, wait," Marie was rubbing her forehead as she rested on the floor, "you and Minato basically crossed your dimensions over and met up within the wedding?"

"Yep!" Hamuko chirped from the floor as well. "That's pretty much how I met Mina-chan in the first place!"

The raven-haired girl gave an unsteady glare. "And after that..."

"Well," the red-eyed Wild Card scratched the back of her head, "basically we had to beat the Guardian Shadow in there. Um, actually, a lot of people expressed surprise about us two before the Merciful Clergyman attacked."

"Oh, they did? In what way?"

"After the battle, we were all talking about how everyone somehow had their memories of Mina-chan and me... fused, come together, something to that effect. They all had headaches at the same time, too, though SEES had it more severe. Elizabeth and Theodore too, I think."

"Huh," Marie muttered in realization, "no wonder why my head felt like it was about to pop-out-popcorn. And why I never knew you much until that point."

"Yeah, I guess it's been a bit crazy this past half-hour." Hamuko shook her head. "Though I doubt Mina-chan will ever call it crazy."

"So... what are you gonna do now?" The poet folded her arms. "I mean, both of your dimensions just merged, right? Won't that cause, like, I dunno, some kind of reality-warping problem?"

The Wild Card shrugged. "Eh, I don't know what else am I supposed to do. And it's not like I've experienced some long-term problems right now."

Marie frowned at how her new companion brushed it off. "Well, that's true..."

"Though," Hamuko continued with a finger on her cheek, "people are still thinking about if Mina-chan or I should be the leader, since he appears to be more experienced. Personally, I don't mind the job, even if it's temporary at that, and if he wants it, he gets it."

"You're awfully lenient." Her lips faltered for a moment. "Wait, that word's about punishing people. Hm... just 'tolerant', then?"

"Like I said, I don't mind."

"...Well alright, let's go with that."

Hamuko was a fun one, Marie thought to herself, being extravagantly humorous and very outgoing. An alternate existence, who holds the same power, yet was never meant to make contact with itself in a different universe. Have her in a duo with Minato, who was calm, collected, and just plain bored, and...

...Her pathos suddenly bloomed into a wonderful burst of inspiration.

"By the way," Marie had to ask ever since that incident, "you two never really married over there, huh? I would have assumed it was a ball with 'fancy clothes', but it turned out to be a wedding."

"No, we didn't," Hamuko shrugged. "In all honesty, we knew it was a fake wedding ever since we got there, but we went on ahead, played along, did the bridal style, and I confessed my love to him!"

...

...

"Bridal style," the poet stared at her, disbelievingly. "The pose with the prince holding the princess in his arms. Like those fairy tales."

"Yep!"

...

...

"And then you confessed your love to him despite the fact that you didn't know him up until now."

"Yep!"

...

...

"And you did all of this in under... ten minutes?"

"Actually, it was five."

"...Why am I trying to reason with you again?"

"To be fair, Margaret did say that we're all weird people."

They both turned to the elder woman sitting on the blue couch, playing around with the tarot deck. The woman in question paid no attention to their nonsense.

"...No, wait, I think it was Elizabeth," Hamuko hummed to herself. "Or... was it her?"

...

"Anyways," Marie coughed, "now that the universes are both merged... I think... and we haven't found any problems so far, that's probably a good thing." She turned to her caretaker. "Right, Margaret?"

"Possibly," Margaret finally looked up to them. "But we are treading on thin ice. We must not assume that such things will go smoothly. Ultimately, it is her decisions that decide their fates."

"So... she does whatever she wants until something stupid happens," the poet surmised in her own way. "Well, whatever. At least things are getting a little livelier here."

"Right!"

So long as an individual was trusting everyone in some way, she couldn't complain. These were all her friends, and these were all his friends. And he... he was the same as her, and he felt the connection as much as she did. That's all that mattered.

...

Maybe that's why... to her, he really was...

...

"By the way, did you ever come up with any new poems recently?"

"Wh-why do you want to know?"

"Oh come, now, it's what you've been doing for a while! By the way, your roses aren't so red in darkness, you know?"

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! Where did you find that one!?"

"Is that really the question you want to ask instead? Besides, I didn't find it, someone on my team did."

"No..."

"We were playing a category game when we were in the Group Date Cafe, and all of a sudden, he pulled out a piece of paper."

"Noooooo..."

"And if the loser lost, they had to read the poem in front of the team. Hm... maybe I should play the game again..."

"Noooooooooooo!"

...

...

"Cheer up, Marie! It couldn't have been that bad!"

Whatever Hamuko tried to hear from the poet only resulted in hearing an incoherent mess coming from her babbling.

* * *

**Finish!**

**So... I've been playing way too much Persona Q lately. Been having fun with the shenanigans Rei gets herself into, along with the Group Date Cafe (Elizabeth's my first), and the FOEs. DAMN THEM FOES. But hey, having Ken use Hamaon combined with Impure Reach on a certain FOE sure puts a smile on my face. And then I gave him Alice with Die For Me!...**

**Oh, anyways, that's pretty much why I haven't updated any of my Persona-related work (Puella Arcana Somniator Madoka, Moonlit Rose) for a long while. I've been hoping to beat the game in my leisure with the P3 side, then move on to watching videos of the P4 side (just being a bit picky with the storyline unless someone says so). I will say that this isn't much of an excuse, since I got THE WILD CARDS EDITION near the day it was released, but the repetitiveness of the game, combined with the constant scrub moments I somehow get myself into, constantly put my pace to a slow.**

**...Yeah.**

**But hey, I'm over halfway finished with the P3 side already (Inaba Pride Exhibit, fourth floor), and Fate Seeker just spits out EXP at me because it loves me. Ken continues to kick ass with Alice while I'm armed with Hamaon, Shinji's got Power Charge, Junpei throws a lot of Ice attacks with Golden Gemini and Ice Paradise combined, and Yuka-tan's stuck with Dominion... and not much else.**

***Cough***

**And once I'm done with that, hopefully things should get back on track. This year will now be very busy for me, though, so I won't have a lot of free time on my hands. But hey, here I come!**

**Now then... until the next Full Moon. Maybe.**

**P.S.: Orpheus Telos is OP. Healing Harp equals lolheavydamageandstatuseffects. Oh, and Marie is best Navigator. "TO VICTORY!"**


End file.
